Today, Cork is the last track to tick on my racing bucket list
Runners and riders in the Pride Of Place Maiden during the Laytown Races at Laytown in Meath this month, September 2026. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
WHAT makes a good racecourse?
I think I’m in a better position than most to comment as this Tuesday will see me complete a longstanding mission to visit every track in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland by finally making it to a meeting at Cork.
I deliberately saved the Mallow venue until last because Cork is where life began for me.
My dad was a lecturer at UCC and living in Ballincollig when I was born in 1975, although his career took him across the water soon afterwards so my memories of that time are non-existent.
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We eventually settled in London and this is where I grew up, meaning the accent today is more cockney than Cork.
I remember in the early 2000s getting a lift in a Dublin taxi where the driver was slagging me. I clarified where I came from originally and he seemed distinctly unimpressed by my revelation, suggesting he actually preferred me as a Brit. Typical Dub.
Why horse racing though?
I’ve always enjoyed it. I think the Irish background is perhaps subconsciously part of the reason for that, as the sport is much more popular and prominent feature of everyday life in the Old Sod compared to the UK.
My first ever trip to the races came in the summer of 1992 when a visiting Irish uncle allowed 17-year-old me to tag along for a fairly low grade midweek evening card at Epsom.
As the home of the Derby, Epsom obviously falls into the A list category of courses. However, that wasn’t in my awareness at the time and the place seemed virtually empty.
I enjoyed the night out and had a few winners, which obviously helps, but it didn’t spark me into a regular racegoer straight away.
It would be another three years before the same uncle took myself and two cousins to the Irish Derby at the Curragh in 1995.
That one attracted a slightly larger crowd, unsurprisingly, and my main memory is waiting over an hour afterwards to finally get out of the car park.
I went to the Cheltenham Festival for the first time in 1997 and its Galway equivalent in the same year, two massive meetings in both countries.
That began a spell of annual visits to Prestbury Park for the jump Olympics every March, although I stopped going in 2002 and haven’t returned since.
Why? By that stage I had worked out I enjoyed the smaller and less glamourous tracks and meetings a lot more, as everything seemed like a bit of an effort at Cheltenham with the place always rammed.
Give me a Monday jumps card at Plumpton every time over 50,000 plus people all trying to get served at a Cheltenham bar.
I occasionally still attend those big events, but try to keep them to the absolute minimum.
For instance in 2017 I completed every English course by doing that year’s Grand National at Aintree. I’m glad I’ve been to a National, although by the end of my journey around England’s tracks I was more convinced than ever the smaller the track, the better.
The best one to go to in England? For me it is Cartmel in the Lake District. Cartmel looks like a quaint little village from another era when you initially arrive, almost like something from the 1950s. They even have something called the Sticky Toffee Pudding shop.
But once you are inside the actual course it is a totally different world.
You will find funfair rides with big dippers in the background for kids to enjoy, leaving the punters to get on with the more serious business of placing bets and getting the beers in. A very surreal experience is how I would describe it and a great day out.
I particularly enjoyed Ludlow and Stratford on my travels, as well as Taunton in Somerset. Essentially the smaller jumps tracks are the ones that do it for me.
Once England was completed I carried on by doing the handful of tracks north of Hadrian’s Wall, as well as the trio of circuits in Wales.
Of those, Perth in Scotland stands out as they play host to a fantastic three-day National Hunt festival in late April, one which always attracts a strong contingent of Irish-trained horses.
UK tracks I didn’t particularly like? Chelmsford tops the list. This is Britain’s newest racecourse so in theory should be one of its shining lights. It doesn’t help that it is an AW (all weather) surface, a form of racing I’m not mad on.
But the main problem is the view of the Grandstand, which they bizarrely placed in the middle of the track, meaning all spectators get to see is the section of the course directly in front of you as the runners turn for home. The majority of the race takes place behind the stand and out of sight and you are none the wiser what is happening. It didn’t help that the big TV screen broke down the day I was there but even so it is a terribly designed track and a real waste.
Its Irish equivalent, Dundalk, is a very different story. I say equivalent because just like Chelmsford, it is the country’s ‘newest’ course having been given a makeover from a former jumps course and reopened in 2009 as Ireland’s first ever AW track.
Despite my dislike of racing on an artificial surface, Dundalk has superb modern facilities and you can even see all of the racing. Chelmsford take note.
I may not be particularly enamoured with racing that doesn’t take place on turf, but there is no denying the annual late afternoon meeting on Laytown beach in Co. Meath is a bit special.
You might not be able to see much of the actual racing, which is a downside, but the atmosphere and uniqueness of the occasion more than makes up for it.
It seemed the logical next step to begin ticking off all the 26 Irish tracks having finished the British ones.
There are practicalities which have made it a bit slower to do than I would have hoped, such as lockdown for instance, which scuppered my plans to attend the Punchestown festival in both 2020 and 2021. I eventually got that one done the following year once house arrest was lifted.
I enjoyed Punchestown a lot more than Cheltenham because even though there were 18,000 people there, the place is so big it didn’t feel anywhere near as hectic and busy.
The Listowel festival, just concluded at the weekend for 2026, is another meeting I thoroughly enjoyed and certainly plan to return to again, as I only spent two days there – neither including the day of the Kerry National. Bellewstown in Meath is also well worth a visit, the course almost being situated smack bang in the middle of the village.
What is the main difference I have noticed between Irish racing and the UK version? Pricing and value for money.
A day at the races in Ireland seems a lot more affordable than in Britain, which means it is more accessible to a wider audience.
I can’t help but feel English tracks are shooting themselves in the foot with some of their eye-watering admission charges.
But it isn’t just the entry fee, there is the cost of food and drink once you have paid to get in which tends to be airport prices in the UK.
That isn’t the case in Ireland where it remains relatively cheap by comparison for a ticket and where pretty much every course serves a fair-priced carvery meal.
In England you need to back a couple of winning horses at decent prices just to cover a bite to eat and a few beers!
Also, on my side of the Irish Sea there is still a lingering class element at play when it comes to a day at the races. I did go to Royal Ascot once in 2000 with friends from the university I was graduating from that year.
Although it was a fun day in good company, the pomp and ceremony wasn’t really my scene and I have never returned despite it remaining THE A-list meeting of the flat season.
My one and only trip to Wincanton in 2013 included a rebuke from an elderly course official about not being allowed to wear trainers in a particular enclosure.
There was a similar bit of pettiness one time from someone at Doncaster, this time for having jeans on. It’s Doncaster for God's sake, not Eton!
These are issues I’ve thankfully encountered very rarely and the overwhelming majority of UK courses don’t take themselves so seriously.
But it is just something that would never happen in Ireland - and rightly so.
What’s next? I’ve already been racing in Dubai, Australia, Canada and New Zealand before so maybe continental Europe is worth exploring.
I’ve always been intrigued by the thought of making it one day to the Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp so maybe that is as good a place to start as any.
